1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for monitoring remotely located objects, and relates, for example, in a rentals business that provides machine and vehicle rentals, to a technology which is adapted as a support apparatus or similar for establishing a maintenance scheme for the machines and vehicles being rented.
2. Description of the Related Art
The description that follows is based on the example of a construction vehicle rental company.
Such a company normally employs a business model in which a plurality of branch stores are situated in different locations and a plurality of construction vehicles are owned and utilized individually by each branch store. Consequently, the maintenance of the construction vehicles is carried out by each branch store, and each branch store performs maintenance on construction vehicles in its possession by means of the following method, for example.
In other words, as occasion calls, the clerk at each branch store contacts renting customers with regard to construction vehicles being rented, asks where and how the rented construction vehicles are being used, and so forth, and thus infers the respective current position and operating status of the construction vehicles being rented. Then, based on the current positions and operating statuses thus inferred, a serviceman from each branch store determines maintenance schedules, and then goes to one or a plurality of sites to maintain the construction vehicles in accordance with these schedules.
However, efficient maintenance using this conventional method is difficult for the reasons provided below.
That is, investigations, by workers, of sites and the operating states of vehicles being rented is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and sites and operating states investigated in this manner are not necessarily accurate. This leads to inefficiencies in that maintenance schedules of low efficiency are established, sites to be visited are overlooked, visits are made to sites which are close to other branch stores by servicemen from branch stores that are especially far away from these sites, the times at which the maintenance is carried out are too early or too late, and so forth.
Problems of this kind are not limited to the rentals industry alone but rather may also exist in a variety of other business fields that deal with various objects in remote locations.